Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on Thursday confirmed that relief pitcher Tony Cingrani has been shut down with the same shoulder problem that sidelined him for most of the second half of last season. (AP Photo/John Hefti)

PEORIA, Ariz. — The same shoulder problem that sidelined lefty reliever Tony Cingrani for most of the second half of last season has followed him into 2019.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed that Cingrani has been shut down and probably will “not even pick up a ball” until after Opening Day to re-start his throwing program.

“The same shoulder issue he had last year came back. So we’re going to shut him down and hopefully calm this shoulder thing down,” Roberts said Thursday.

“It just hasn’t been coming out right so you can see he’s kind of favoring that shoulder. He’s as tough as they come and tried to pitch through it but it wasn’t right. So we felt we needed to take a couple steps back.”

The Dodgers have begun the same process they went through with Cingrani last July.

The medical staff was unable to find a specific structural issue causing the problem last summer. He received a cortisone injection when the shoulder was slow to progress but didn’t pitch after July 22 until making two appearances in September. He faced four hitters and retired only one of them.

Cingrani pitched four innings in Cactus League games this spring, most recently on Sunday. He didn’t allow a run and struck out three but his velocity was diminished.

The Dodgers re-signed the arbitration-eligible Cingrani to a $2.65 million contract last November despite his recurring shoulder problems – he also spent time on the DL with shoulder strains in 2014 and 2015 – and expected him to be the main left-hander in their 2019 bullpen. Scott Alexander is now the only clear left-handed option in the bullpen. The Dodgers did acquire left-hander Donnie Hart from the Baltimore Orioles recently but he was immediately shipped out to the minor-league camp.

The door now appears open wide for starters Julio Urias and Caleb Ferguson to open the season in a bullpen role with the major-league team.

“It just gives other guys opportunities,” Roberts said, adding that both young left-handers would continue to build up their pitch counts in a starting pitcher’s program.

“So you see what other guys are doing and we’ll see how it shakes out.”

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.